Somerset food pantries: Weekly shop that costs £3.50

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a woman in the doorway of a food pantry
Image caption,

Clare Walsh runs Minehead food pantry

More than 400 people are now members of community food pantries in Somerset.

For a small weekly membership fee, they receive food worth a lot more.

The county's 10th pantry is about to open, stocked with surplus food from supermarkets which would otherwise be thrown away.

Member Simon Dorrell said he was struggling with the cost of living and "prices going up", but the pantry "helps out quite a lot".

Minehead's pantry has 30 members but another 50 people on the waiting list.

Image caption,

Simon has been using the pantry since his wife died

Anyone can join, unlike a foodbank members do not need a referral, but Minehead does have a long waiting list of prospective members.

A weekly fee of £3.50 gets you around 20 items of food worth around £30.

Image caption,

The food is largely surplus donated by local supermarkets which would otherwise go into waste

Helen Phillips coordinates Somerset Local Pantry Network for Somerset Council.

"A food pantry is very much a membership scheme, like a food club," she said.

"You pay a membership fee, you come every week and you don't know what you're going to get - that's the fun element of it.

"But you're going to get good food, nutritious food and affordable food, so your weekly budget will go much further."

Image caption,

Debby Ward likes being a member of Minehead pantry to reduce food waste

As well as saving money, many members feel they are doing their bit for the environment.

Ms Phillips said Somerset's food pantries have saved 115 tonnes of food from going to waste over the last four years - the equivalent of nearly 280,000 meals.

Debby Ward, a member of Minehead pantry, said: "It saves money, which is always good, and I like the waste aspect of it. I don't like things going to waste."

The number of pantries in Somerset, external has seen a big rise since the first two opened in Bridgwater in 2020.

The county's 10th pantry is set to open in the next few months.

Image caption,

Pantry members get around 20 items for their £3.50 a week fee

Clare Walsh runs Minehead Local Pantry and said many of the members are approaching "food insecurity".

"Unfortunately west Somerset is lowest in the list of social mobility areas in England. We live in a really challenging area, and a lot of people have fallen into food insecurity in the last few years with the cost of living crisis," she said.

"The people that grow up here, the families, their life chances are quite low in terms of education, careers, housing and with the cost of living crisis it's been really, really challenging in the last few years so that's why the pantry has made such a difference to people's lives.

"We live in a beautiful area with lots of local food producers, allotments and all the local supermarkets support us - we are very, very lucky."

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